Dimmer Beach: Walk around any good-sized touring production company, and you will see gear in their shop that they do not own. Oftentimes at the end of a tour, or when there is an extended break, one part of the production may ask another to “store/ hold/hang on to/leave it here for a bit” until it can be picked up. This is just part of the business, and really isn’t a big deal…
…Until it is.
3 comments:
I did not know that touring shows used friends’ storage spaces during tours. I always figured that all tours had proper places set up along the way to rotate things around and store them during breaks - or even just keep the materials in their trucks. But I guess it makes sense to not keep expensive equipment in a relatively not protected environment (like, the back of a huge box truck), and that making some friends along the way to give you a safe place to put things makes sense. What I am curious about, however is where does all the transportation go during times of storage? Not every shop is situated on a huge lot with room for touring vans and buses and the like, so where do those things go? Into a shop for tune-ups maybe? I don’t know. However, I do agree that the best way to handle other people taking care of your stuff is to be as descriptive and concise as possible.
I’m on the same page as Kimberly for this one. I guess I hadn’t really thought about where all of the touring stuff goes when the show is on a break. I guess I had assumed they would keep it, or move it to a storage location they could keep everything in-what else are you going to do with 100 trucks full of equipment? It makes sense that they would want to keep their expensive gear somewhere more secure, and it does help to make friends along the way. I would hope that touring shows are respectful of what they are asking, and aware that they have a lot of expensive equipment that they are asking others to take care of. I don’t think the phrase “it’s always better to ask forgiveness than permission” applies here, especially if it’s a friendship and your equipment at stake.
Like the other commenters, I was shocked that there wasn’t a more strict system for storing gear during breaks on tour. You would think that this is something that gets managed before hand and has a proper protocol. The idea of calling up a friend on short notice to watch your stuff seems so odd. I do agree with the author however that if you are going to leave things with a company on short notice then you should certainly be considerate enough to call ahead to make sure its okay and to set up some sort of plan for picking it up. I get that there is a lot of informality in the touring world, but that should not mean that common courtesy should be thrown out the window, especially when you are asking for a favor.
Also, I didn't understand why a shop that didn’t have the space for your gear and who you didn’t call ahead to would store your stuff any way.
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